Crystal grew up on an acreage in Atikokan, a small isolated town in Northwestern Ontario. Her life was surrounded by rocks, trees, water and animals. She spent alot of time sketching her surroundings. She grew up to have her first    job in a ceramic shop and was given the freedom to paint pictures on the pieces she made. Here she took tole painting (with oils) and calligraphy classes. Her first art sale was to her History Teacher who sent the piece to Germany. She was 14. This started her career in selling various creations everywhere she lived, while spending every spare moment doing one crafty thing or another.

Shortly after moving to Beaumont, she started picture framing as an extension to her craft business. When she joined the Artist Association of Beaumont, to market her skills, she took an art class through them. On April 11, 1999 she picked up a chalk pastel and was given instructions to play. That fateful day has changed her focus and career plans.

She has taken workshops with Frank Haddock, Tyler Thompson, Vanessa Mack, Maureen Devlin, Jim Davies, Ron Wigglesworth, Garett Gunderson, Carol Gibney, Cindy Barratt, and spent a year under the guidance of Willie Wong.

She has experimented with acrylics, stained glass, welding, watercolor, pencil, pen & ink,collage as well as both soft and oil pastels. She primarily works in watercolor but wanders off to other mediums when her muse dictates that she should.

She also paints more florals than any other subject, though rocks and water follow very closely behind. She has done everything from wildlife to portraits to heavy equipment and the trucks that haul them. Most of her mixed media or collage pieces are abstracts.

She has won awards using soft pastels, watercolor or acrylics as her mediums.

Although Crystal spends her days playing with her paints, she works full time in their frame shop, markets her own work as well as her husband and daughters, and belongs to several art associations at local, provincial and national levels. Fortunately she has the gift of energy and doesn’t hesitate to jump into a project when it’s necessary. She also has the ability to turn mountains into molehills and this often has her doing several projects at the same time.

When visiting her, you will find her busy getting it all done, simply because she doesn’t get stressed about it-she doesn’t have time!

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